“Whatever the Source is, however it is named or imagined, the truth is the same: Our gifts are donated from that originating point. Each interpretive system of spiritual and mystical culture understands this. The crucial point in life is to use these gifts wisely: not to squander them, but to commit them to the benefit of the whole community of life.”

Some years ago I caused something of a scandal when I pointed out that the original Sanskrit root of the word “Yoga,” meant “Union,” and that the objective of the spiritual path was not to get rid of the ego and of our imperfections, but instead to embrace and transform them.

Much later I discovered that I was not alone in my understanding:

“Transcending the ego” thus actually means to transcend but include the ego in a deeper and higher embrace, first in the soul or deeper psychic, then with the Witness or primordial Self, then with each previous stage taken up, enfolded, included, and embraced in the radiance of One Taste. And that means we do not “get rid” of the small ego, but rather, we inhabit it fully, live it with verve, use it as the necessary vehicle through which higher truths are communicated. Soul and Spirit include body, emotions, and mind; they do not erase them.”

“Whenever we look at nature and at all phenomena we find it impossible to put our fingers on boundary lines which are definite limits of independent existence. A thing which seems to be separate from one point of view is found from another to be related, and therefore dependent on other existences. Nature is an integrated symbiotic Whole.”

“The transcendent element of an inward Gnosis is indelibly inscribed in the human heart; all the trivialities of the everyday world due to inattention and consequent ignorance are unable to extinguish its remembrance.”